I came across the name Stangl at an auction a couple years ago when I bought a lovely hand-colored pottery bird. The name was unfamiliar to me, but I’ve learned a lot about the company and the bird since then. It was an Evening Grosbeak, a canary-yellow bird with black and white accents.
Since then, I’ve seen Stangl dinnerware, serving bowls, elephant, corn mold, candle warmer, vases, candy dishes and cigarette boxes.
One of the most beautiful pieces was a jeweled Christmas tree platter and plate. In the center of the each was a tree with round gold and silver ornaments.
These plates are the second of the Christmas finds that I’m sharing with you as we head into the holidays. Last week, I wrote about Christmas postcards.
The Stangl platter was enormous – 14 ¼” wide. The plate was 8” wide. They both were immaculate, with not one chip or scratch on them.
Most of the Stangl products have its logo on the bottom, as well as the name of the pattern (the birds also have the initials of the artist who painted them). These were simply marked “Christmas Tree,” with the letters VI indicating that they were produced in 1956.
Another of my Stangl Christmas finds was a large serving bowl with holly leaves and berries in the center. It had a lovely cinnamon brown bottom.
Stangl Pottery is well-known among many collectors, and its dinnerware is very popular. The company is most famous for its line of pottery birds, which have their own collectors club. The birds were based on James J. Audubon’s “Birds of America” prints.
The company was founded in 1814 in Flemington, N.J., by a man named Samuel Hill, who used the area’s red earthen clay to make crocks and jars for home use, according to the Stangl Pottery website. It was bought 50 years later by a man named Abram Fulper, who created stoneware pottery that bears his name. In 1910, Fulper Pottery hired Martin Stangl to come up with new styles. Stangl bought Fulper in 1929 and changed the name. All of the company’s manufacturing operations were eventually moved to Trenton and stayed there until it shut down in 1978.
There are so many Stangl collectibles – and I bump into a new one pretty often at auction – that they’re worth a later post.
